Spider-Noir Episode 5 Brings Back A Classic Pulp Sci-Fi Storytelling Trope
by Devin Meenan · /FilmSpoilers for "Spider-Noir" Episode 5, "Betrayal," ahead.
One of the mysteries in "Spider-Noir" is how Flint Marko (Jack Huston) and his ilk got their superpowers. Episode 5 finally sheds some light, tying their origins to Ben Reilly's (Nicolas Cage) transformation into the Spider and World War I.
A flashback shows Ben liberating a lab full of American POWs, including Marko. The Germans were experimenting on their prisoners to create super-soldiers; Ben got his powers when a half-human, half-mutant spider bit him.
While, again, this flashback is set during WWI when Imperial Germany was part of the Central Powers, nightmarish German super-science brings to mind Nazi super-villains right out of "Indiana Jones." "Spider-Noir" is a pulp story, and Nazi super-science is a super common pulp trope. (As TV Tropes incisively calls it, "Stupid Jetpack Hitler.")
An essential part of pulp is a vintage feeling; pulp stories tend to take place in the early 20th Century, when the German Nazis were still in power. It's also hard to find a group more universally accepted as villains than Nazis. This pulp tradition pulls on some real history; the Nazis were genuinely interested in the occult, with Hitler especially transfixed by the Spear of Longinus (which pierced Jesus Christ's side as he died on the cross). The Nazis even dedicated a good portion of their war effort to "Wunderwaffe" or super-weapons (like V-Weapon rockets).
That said, pulp stories giving Nazis bona-fide superweapons/super soldiers do feed into some myths that the Nazi war machine was more organized than it really was. The popular image of efficient, goose-stepping fascists is just that: popular culture. Even without World War II, the Third Reich would never have stood 1,000 years. The vanquishing of the Nazis is why modern pulp stories can look back on them as fantastical villains.
Nazi super-science in comics, from Marvel to Hellboy
"Spider-Noir" is far from the first Marvel story to depict Germany investing in super-soldiers while fighting America. Captain America, a superhero created to fight Nazis in our world and his, especially tends to battle the pulp version of the Third Reich.
Most of Cap's famous villains, like the Red Skull and Baron Zemo, are Nazi megalomaniacs. Their super-weapons range from death rays to the Sleeper mecha to the Aryan super-soldier Master Man. In some tellings of Cap's origin, the Super Soldier Serum that transformed Steve Rogers was originally commissioned by the Nazis, before Dr. Abraham Erskine took it and defected to the Allies.
Besides Captain America, the superhero who punches the most Nazis is Hellboy. Mike Mignola's Hellboy universe is an alchemic blend of pulp storytelling, and, no surprise, the Nazis are recurring villains. Hellboy himself came to Earth thanks to a Wunderwaffe. In 1944, the Nazis (advised by a treacherous Grigori Rasputin) attempted Project Ragna Rok. Rapustin opened the gates of Hell, the Nazis thinking that whatever laid beyond would help them win the war. Hellboy, harbinger of Rasputin's dreamed apocalypse, came through but resists his destiny at every turn.
Other Nazi villains in the "Hellboy" universe include Ragna Rok scientist Karl Ruprect Kroenen, Rasputin's devotee Ilsa Haupstein, and scientist Herman Von Klempt (preserved as a head in a jar). On the other side, the hero Lobster Johnson — who fought crime in 1930s New York City — runs afoul of early Nazis, too. The Lobster perished in 1939 storming a Nazi base, but his spirit held on because his antifascist will is just that strong.
If you enjoy "Spider-Noir" and watching a masked crimefighter punch 1930s gangsters, then "Lobster Johnson" is a comic right up your alley.
Pulpy Nazi villains, from Hollywood to anime
"Spider-Noir" isn't alone among recent pulp media in featuring Nazi twisted-science; the 2018 horror flick "Overlord" has American GI's fighting Nazi-created zombies. Similarly, in the superhero satire "The Boys," all "supes" get their powers from the chemical Compound V, created by German scientist Frederick Vought. Compound V is another manifestation of the belief in a master race, and alt-right supe Stormfront (Aya Cash) shows how modern Nazis have changed tactics.
It's worth noting that it's American pulp fiction that loves turning Nazis into fantastical villains. After all, beating the Nazis is intrinsic to modern American mythology and self-image, because its victory in WWII cemented the United States as the world superpower of the 20th century. Pulp heroes, from Captain America to Hellboy to Spider-Man (Noir or otherwise) in turn represent the idealized American self-image.
On the other hand, even anime will sometimes draw on the aforementioned "Stupid Jetpack Hitler" trope. It must be said that Japan fought alongside Nazi Germany as part of the Axis Powers in WWII (and Japan's lingering national trauma over the U.S. dropping an atomic bomb on them manifests in the country's media), but more modern Japanese stories will rightfully depict Nazi Germany as the villains.
Take the 1920s Germany-set "Fullmetal Alchemist: Conqueror of Shamballa." As fascist sentiment rises, the Thule Society (a real occultist Nazi group) tries to open a portal to another world where our hero, Edward Elric, comes from. Elsewhere, the ultra-violent horror action anime "Hellsing" features a gun-toting "Alucard" battling Millennium, a Third Reich remnant who've made themselves vampires with the corpse of Dracula's former victim Mina Harker.
"Hellsing" is an unpleasant reminder of how fascism endures, which is why it's still fun to watch heroes punch out fascists. "Spider-Noir" is streaming on Prime Video.